YMCA people

YMCA Memories

The Young Roots programme is an innovative project to capture the oral history of the YMCA one of Scotland’s oldest youth organisations. Sharing the Past to Shape the Future uses an inter-generational approach, led by our young people from YMCAs across Scotland, capturing oral histories from across the nation.

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PIONEERING A PREVENTATIVEAPPROACH

Prevention

For the last two years YMCA Scotland, has been further developing its Early Intervention programmes including Plusone mentoring, but has also been looking at how a more “preventative” approach can engage with children (8-14) either as a mentoring approach (Aspire Mentoring) or within existing youth work settings. Both Early Intervention and targeted Prevention work seeks to identify the potential risks in a child/young person that may lead to future involvement in the justice system however targeted Prevention will seek to identify emerging risk factors at a stage earlier than Early intervention and will have a clear focus of asset building and the positive potential of the child/young person with less focus on risks and problem behaviour.

Research has identified factors in children and young people’s lives associated with an increased risk of problems at school, criminal behaviour and drug and alcohol misuse. A preventative approach centres on building trusting relationships with these young people to help them bring about change and build resilience. Five local YMCAs Edinburgh, Renfrew, Kirkcaldy, Tollcross and Dumfries have been piloting preventative approaches within their existing youth work programmes.

CONFLICT

NEGATIVE PEER RELATIONSHIPS

LOW ATTENDANCE AT SCHOOL

Kirkcaldy YMCA – Sound Support Project - Melissa’s Story

Sophie was 14 and in S3 when she was referred to the sound support programme. She was not engaged in education with her attendance at 38.6%. She was refusing to engage in part time education and she was at risk of leaving school with no qualifications. Sophie found it difficult to express her feelings and was a quiet girl who found it difficult to work as part of a team with low self-esteem and self-confidence. There were a four main areas of potential risk identified in the referral, single parent family, Lack of commitment, mental health problems, social and emotional problems.

As a result of attending the sound support project Sophie has been able to turn this around. Her attendance at the project was 78% which has doubled her attendance and she has grown in confidence and is now able to work as part of a team and gained more peer friendships. Sophie now attends school regularly and is not in the support base.

Tollcross YMCA - Bounce House Social Enterprise - Kyle’s Story

Jason’s involvement in the Bounce House social enterprise has been a positive experience for him and exposed him to financial and project responsibilities i.e. delegating others, building up trust, handling cash. As part of the project Jason has a one to one mentor who is a member of the youth work staff and spends time with him completing his outcome star evaluation. This intense support has resulted in Jason’s attendance at school rising to 57%. His behaviour has become less aggressive to his peer group which has been observed by youth work staff during sessions and has also been commented upon by his teachers at school. The school have commented that his behaviour is much more positive and that it is evident that Jason is demonstrating a tolerance and self-control towards others that he does not like, agree with who challenge his negative behaviour.

Jason’s attendance has also increased at Tollcross YMCA , not only does he attend the youth committee as a result of the prevention project he now attends our Saturday night drop in and most trips and events delivered by Tollcross YMCA. As a result of the prevention project Jason has started to understand the importance of a school education if he’s to achieve his goal of a career in engineering. As a result of his weekly talks with youth work staff over his outcome star’s he has had the opportunity to discuss his feeling and is able with guidance to work through how he should deal with a given issue so that it’s a more positive outcome for him. This has been a really important aspect of the project for Jason.

Dumfries YMCA - Streetworkz project - Rachel’s story

Claire was initially very distant and peer relationships were an issue at the start of the project. She would display aggressive and disruptive behaviour in front of her friends, causing issues for herself and the Streetworkz team resulting in her being banned from attending at one point . Her youth worker worked with her to get her back into the group, It took a few weeks to try to get her involved in a way that worked for her but that was not causing too much disruption to the rest of the group but it also gave her and her the space to build up a trusting relationship.

After a few months on the project Claire started to respond well to group activities and started to become a trusted member of the team. She is now at a point where she wants to make her community a better place for other young people to live and is much less likely to have outbursts of anger

Claire is now part of the YMCA fundraising team and looking to take on more responsibility by raising money for her community and the YMCA that she now feels a part of. She is now a role model to other young people at the start of their journey and is now looking to become a youth worker herself.

YMCA Edinburgh – After School Club - Lee’s Story

Lee first attended the After School Club at one of the taster days at the YMCA, accompanied by a family support worker. During this session, Lee was shy and reluctant to take part in games and activities, hiding behind the family support worker when directly addressed. In particular, he refused to take part in activities involving pens, pencils or paintbrushes. Alongside this, he would not speak to staff or other children.

Throughout this year and with the encouragement of staff and volunteers, Lee has spoken more, resulting in some lengthy, and extremely imaginative, conversations. Though he remains reluctant to participate in games and activities with the rest of the group, he observes closely and will often choose an element of the game to emulate in his own way. He has also demonstrated an increased interest in drawing and writing, often requesting this activity as an alternative. He produces lists of superheroes and other comic-book characters, drawings of his own invention and neatly completed colouring-in sheets.

Renfrew YMCA – Junior Youth Committee - Sarah’s Story

Sarah joined the Junior Youth Committee at the age of 12. At the beginning of the programme Sarah was attending irregularly and was very disruptive when she did attend the group meetings. Using an asset based approach her youthworker set 6 goals for her to work towards. Focussing on “ Being a positive role model for others” within the Junior Youth Committee Sarah started to be given more leadership roles such as helping organise group activities and making phone calls on behalf of the group.

As a young leader Sarah is now responsible for managing the tuck shop, this includes buying and selling the stock. At the start Sarah often avoided taking her turn going to the shops to get stock , as the project progressed and she felt more responsibility as a member of the team she agreed to go on the rota and started going regularly to buy stock becoming one of the reliable ones within the group for this task.

Since becoming a young leader and a participant in this prevention programme she has made positive friendships with fellow young leader. Sarah’s behaviour and attendance is improving more and more, she is continuing on the project and is now in a great position to start achieving the goals she has set for herself and in turn help achieve the goals of the junior committee as they plan activities for the younger ones within their community.

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